Stained Canvas
by CatOfOrion
Summary: "I-I-it's so c-cold..." ..His power just wasn't enough. / One shot. I don't write much but I saw some sentence start up prompts and thought I'd give this a shot. (GaLe for life.)


"I-I-it's so c-cold..." Her voice echoed off the snow, an otherwise clear canvas if it wasn't for the ugly crimson splotch that was beginning to stretch its arms out; wider, and wider yet. As the blood drained from the gaping wound she was left to attend with, Levy McGarden- happy, go lucky, bright, and shining mage of Fairy Tail, began a war within herself. Firstly, she wished someone was there with her. Not just anyone though. Him. At the thought, she pictured his face. All glistening metal and unruly hair. That grin that broke across his face and that happy gleam he got in those eyes of his that many mistook for menace and ran from him.

Her lip trembled then, finally the tears broke through. "S-Stupid Gajeel!" She cried out weakly, though why, she hadn't a clue. Maybe because he hadn't rushed from the brush that surrounded her yet? He never appeared mid-battle this time. She grown so idiotically accustomed to the oaf barreling in on her.

Maybe it was because he just wasn't...here. For her last moments. What she wouldn't give to have him hold her hand right now. A heavy sigh tried to lift her tiny frame, but instead wrecked it with pain and sent her folding in on herself with a yelp, her sobs growing more violent then..a shaky laugh burst between two heaves.

Who was she fooling? She was wrong. She didn't want that. Didn't want him here. What he'd do to himself! Until her dying day, he had yet to forgive himself for what he had done to her and her friends back when he was with Phantom Lord. Mavis, no, he couldn't see her balancing life and death at this moment. It was safer for his mental health to just..hear about her death..Levy was sure.

She prayed though, they wouldn't release the details of why exactly she took this mission. Why she walked into something she knew would only result with death. Of course it was for him! For him, and for her family. Of course it was to keep them alive, and breathing, and hopefully they could all smile again after some healing was done after all this. ' _Nonsense!'_ Levy attempted to shake the thoughts from her head, but instead her cheek just dug its way deeper into the snow. _'Of course they would all smile again..'_

The battle was long, exhausting, and surpassed any pre-assumption she had about it before she partook the mission. The enemy was beyond what she expected, but she held pride within her. It still radiated even as she lay there. She managed to give him a run for his money, land a few good hits and even managed to break a bone. (Or so she thought by the way his arm hung when he fled.) But his magic was more hostile in nature than her own. Crystal Make magic, who would have ever guessed? Jagged, sharp..pillar after pillar coming from the ground beneath her feet before just one wrong step..and she was speared straight through. She managed to break herself off from her gruesome perch with the last of her magic stamina, some shard though remained in the wound itself since Levy really was more erratic at that moment. She should have kept a level head! That was her forte after all..or it was. Heavens! What a mess of things she'd made.

Levy was alone, she was proud, a little irritated at herself, yet she was sad more than anything or perhaps sad wasn't the word? Disappointed. For only one reason, since she only had one regret. Levy never got to tell him she loved him. Gajeel would never know. That knowledge made the very last beat her heart took a very painful one. Striking. More so than it was to be impaled.

Her eyes fluttered close now, hazel shut out from the world buzzing about past this forest, still spinning, still alive and safe.

With one last rise and fall, she was gone.

Just like that. Alone, in the midst of a forest; A way no one would have thought _the_ Levy McGarden of Fairy Tale would go. But there, her soul fled from body and there she died.

* * *

"Dammit! Where is she?!" He ground out, his fist lashing out against a tree before his red eyes shifted to his right, his nostrils flaring and in that same moment- his heart fell to his feet. He'd never forget that scent because he swore he'd use all his power to never have to smell that smell again. Blood. His Shrimp's blood. "No.." It was barely heard, just an echo of a breath, but still the single syllable cracked as it was uttered and he took off at a pace he never thought he could attain.

The scene he met when he broke through to an empty patch of the foliage in the forest was one that would be added to the list of nightmares he suffered. Clean, glistening white framed filthy crimson. Sparkling shards of purple and sulfur shaded crystal lay strewn about. But that wasn't the center fold of the horrid scene. It was her corpse. Curled in on itself, blood staining sky blue and skin far too pale. Far, far too pale.

Levy. She had went off on a mission, Master refused to divulge the information to anyone, but more fiercely when he himself would ask. Then days morphed into weeks, and suddenly a search party was cooked up by Master and shoved off in search of the small mage. It only took Gajeel days to pick up on her fading scent, and a few more days to find himself where he was now.

He didn't know he was screaming, he didn't know he was crying, he didn't feel his knees hit the ground as he cradled her body in his arms. She was too tiny. She was always too damn tiny.

It took hours for Lily to convince him to put her down, and hours more to get him to walk away from the scene. His eyes were wide, and war torn. Not by battle, but by something far more damaging. His chapped lips only knowing one word as he was lead back by his best friend, the very whisper that was the usher to the whole thing.

"No..no..no..Levy..."

One beat.

Two.

"No..."

 _His power just wasn't enough._


End file.
